Vandeek’s half-brother wins G2 Royal Ascot Coventry Stakes
Champion 2YO and two-time Group 1 winner Vandeek, photographed at Cheveley Park Stud in England, will shuttle to Arrowfield this coming Spring. (PHOTO: Cheveley Park Stud)
The first, and most prestigious of the six 2YO races at Royal Ascot 2025 has produced a most impressive, 3-length victory by Gstaad, the half-brother of Arrowfield’s new stallion Vandeek.
Sent out as favourite, Gstaad settled closest to the centre of the nearside group in the 20-horse field, and powered up 300 metres out to sprint clear and score in dominant style.
SERIOUS HORSE! GSTAAD WINS THE COVENTRY STAKES! #RoyalAscot pic.twitter.com/evz8Vh6Bns
— At The Races (@AtTheRaces) June 17, 2025
Trainer Aidan O’Brien, celebrating his 11th Coventry winner, said, “I’m delighted. We always thought he was lovely and he’s making into a very nice horse. He’s not slow but looking at him today, he’d get seven furlongs.”
Maywood Stud’s Kelly Thomas, the breeder of both Vandeek & Gstaad, was at Ascot for the race and said, “I’m still in shock. When it happens once you think ‘Oh amazing, it’s happened once’ but for it to happen again, for him to repeat history and win a Group 2 second time out, it’s just amazing. Especially to do it how he did it.”
An imposing, attractive colt purchased for 450,000 guineas by M.V. Magnier at the 2023 Tattersalls December Foal Sale, Gstaad is by Danehill’s brilliant great-grandson Starspangledbanner, whose four Group 1 wins included the 2010 Royal Ascot Golden Jubilee Stakes.
Magnier said of Gstaad after that purchase, “He is a lovely horse, and in fairness to Kelly Thomas and everyone they have done a great job with him. He is a half-brother to a very good horse…He has quality, is a good mover and he looks like he will be a fast, early horse, and hopefully he will be.”
He has already fulfilled that hope and like Vandeek, stepped up to Group 2 success after winning his debut. Vandeek progressed at his third & fourth starts to victory at Group 1 level, and his brother will no doubt be given a similar opportunity.
Gstaad is one of 25 stakeswinners bred on the same 4 x 3 Danehill pattern, a list headed by Group 1 winners Pier (NZ Two Thousand Guineas) & Rhea Moon (Santa Anita American Oaks). This suggests that Vandeek will be well-suited by the abundant supply of mares by Danehill-line sires in Australia.
Mosa Mine (by Exceed And Excel from a half-sister to the dam of Anabaa), the dam of Vandeek and Gstaad, has a perfect 6-winners-from-six-foals record and is now in foal to Wootton Bassett.
